By: Jeff Townsend Bayareasportsdrive 6-2007
E-mail:
Jeff "Fight Man" Townsend
James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (70-6-3, 43 KOs), four division champ and frequent guest on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period”, brought his quest to win a heavyweight title to San Jose, California’s HP Pavilion and walked away with a ten round split decision win in a somewhat lackluster fight. His opponent, New York-based Danny ‘Danny Boy’ Batchelder (25-5-1, 12 KOs), went home with another loss but the night was really all about James Toney.
Toney was
coming off of two consecutive decision losses to hard-hitting Sam Peter and a
draw to former champ Hasim Rahman. An impressive win might have reignited his
career but that was not to be. Instead, there was minimal action throughout the
fight with no hard punches ever really connecting. Both fighters focused on
throwing jabs with some counterpunches landing here and there. Toney likes to
let his opponent lead the action in order to counterpunch but Batchelder’s low
punch output made this strategy difficult.
Toney looked slow and unable to pull the trigger on throwing punches. He had many opportunities to land but he seemed unable or uninterested in throwing enough punches. He clearly won the fight but he did not look like he has the ability to do well against top-level heavyweight fighters.
Toney’s main opponents on this night were his age and weight. At 38 years of age, Toney has been fighting for 19 years. This fact is even more important considering the fact that Toney relies on his fast hands, great defensive skills and his overall ability to avoid being hit to win fights. These skills are the first to disappear for an older fighter. While Batchelder only landed one hard punch in the entire fight, he certainly landed more punches than was expected.
Toney began his career at middleweight
(160). Coming in at 229 for this fight, he is now 69 pounds heavier
than when he first began his career! It can be argued that Toney is a little
lighter now than his most recent fights where he has averaged in the mid-230s.
However, he had set a goal of weighing no more than 217 for this fight with
Batchelder. In order to have a real chance of making a mark in the heavyweight
division, 217 is really the absolute maximum weight that he should be at.
After the fight, Toney was full of excuses for his poor performance and his weight issues. He blamed everything from his wife’s eating habits during her recent pregnancy to a lack of motivation since this was not a big fight. Maybe the boos from the crowd were still ringing in his ears since the crowd exhibited their displeasure at the uneventful fight throughout the entire evening.
In an intriguing heavyweight match-up, Teke Oruh (13-0-1, 6 KOs) from Nigeria kept his undefeated record by winning a majority decision over a very animated Jason Gavern (11-3-2, 5 KOs) of Kissimmee, FL. This six round fight had it all – a knockdown, a concerted effort to entertain the crowd, an angry crowd reaction to the outcome and a point deduction for holding. Even though Oruh came in to this fight a full 20 pounds heavier than Gavern (249 vs. 229), he possessed the faster hands and was able to work behind a very good jab throughout the fight.
At the very end of the first round, Gavern landed a hard punch as Oruh was coming towards him. Oruh dropped to the canvas but quickly rose to easily beat the count, indicating that he was not seriously hurt by the blow. The second round saw Oruh again establishing his sharp jab which made it very difficult for Gavern to get on the inside.
Gavern tried various ways to get on the inside and land punches but nothing seemed to work for him. He would rush in with one punch or attempt to frustrate Oruh by bending very low. However, Oruh would consistently land counterpunches or simply clinch which negated any offense by Gavern.
Seeming to become very frustrated along with lacking a consistent game plan, Gavern became very animated and started playing to the crowd. He would yell out ‘oooh’ or a loud shout in a mocking manner after Oruh would land an effective punch. The crowd seemed to enjoy Gavern’s antics and this provoked him to be even more vocal.
In the later rounds, Gavern started to passionately complain when a clinch would occur and the referee agreed, by taking a point away from Oruh in the 5th round for holding. Gavern went so far as to pretend to be hurt by punches that he claimed were low blows. By this point, Oruh was clearly frustrated by Gavern’s antics and began to loudly complain to the referee.
Two judges scored the fight 57-55 for Oruh while the third judge scored it a draw, giving Oruh a majority decision win. Apparently, Gavern’s showboating and antics won over the crowd because they roundly booed the decision.
In the fight before the main event, Karim Mayfield (2-0, 2 KOs) from San Francisco, CA had to settle for a Technical draw/No contest against tough Jorge Padilla (7-3-2, 1 KO) from Mexico City in a scheduled 4 round welterweight bout. Padilla figured to be a good test for Mayfield since he has gone the distance with a number of talented fighters.
True
to his strong amateur training, Mayfield boxed very effectively by working
behind his jab while moving in and out of range to avoid being hit by Padilla.
An accidental head butt caused a cut to open up over Padilla’s right eye at the
very end of the second round which caused the fight to be called to an end.
In the opening fight of the night, Elroy Perez (8-0-1, 1 KO) of Salinas, CA was awarded a unanimous decision against Barbaro Zepeda (8-13-1, 2 KOs) in a six round junior lightweight bout. Perez took control of the fight by effectively boxing Zepeda, prompting all three judges to score the fight 60-54 for Perez. It was of little surprise that this fight went the distance since the fighters only had 3 KOs in 29 fights between the two of them.
Up-and-coming prospect and San Jose native Ricardo Cortes (19-1-1) was scheduled to face durable journeyman Marcos Primera (20-17-2) in a ten round middleweight bout but Primera’s failure of a medical test caused the fight to be cancelled. After Primera failed a pre-fight MRI test, the California State Athletic Commission not only mandated that the fight be cancelled but also banned Primera from ever fighting in California again. Cortes looked to be in great shape for this fight since he came in at 160, which would have been the lightest he has ever weighed for a fight in his entire career.
Attendance at the HP Pavilion in San Jose was 4,269 for the second installment of the American Metal and Iron Fight Night at the Tank.